EPFL ArtLab dedicates its second temporary exhibition to th
e work of !Medien
gruppe Bitnik\, whose acidic yet playful take on our digital ever
yday will occupy ArtLab’s central exhibition space all summer long.\
n\nBuilding on a project which the Zurich-via-Berlin duo Carme
n Weisskopf and Domagoj Smoljo initially develop
ed for Kunsthaus Langenthal\, Come Chat With Me follows up on exhibitions held at Cen
tre culturel suisse de Paris and swissnex San Francisco and is produced in
cooperation with these two institutions.\n\nWhile the exhibition
features no direct input from EPFL laboratories\, it offers a potent artis
tic take on topics that are at the core of contemporary science – societ
y relationships\, such as the ever- growing presence of automated process
in our digital environments\, human – bot relationships\, artificial int
elligence\, and the heated battles surrounding ownership and use of person
al and institutional data.\n\nSeductive but diffusing a creeping a
ir of unease\, Ashley Madison: Angels at Work in Lausanne is at
the core of the exhibition. Built around the renowned 2015 data leak of t
he Canadian dating website\, the installation gives a physical presence to
the chat bots that constitute most of the female community of the website
. It thereby probes our uneasy emotional relationships in environments whe
re human and machine interactions are increasingly difficult to tell apart
.\n\nBuilding on that core piece\, Come Chat With Me take
s a retrospective look at the work of !Mediengruppe Bitnik with w
orks produced between 2012 and 2017\, effectively making the exhibition th
e largest so far by the duo in French-speaking Switzerland.\n\nOPENING: THURSDAY JUNE 29 AT 6 P.M. (access is free and open to all)<
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